Houston resident Elvira Hinojosa waves her receipt as she walks out with a six-pack of Westvleteren 12 at Wilbur's Total Beverage Wine & Spirits on Friday. / V. Richard Haro/The Coloradoan

Angela Colley-Hill, of Fort Collins, smiles after picking up a six-pack of Westvleteren 12 at Wilbur's Total Beverage Wine & Spirits on Friday in Fort Collins. The beer is made at an abbey in Belgium and is considered to be the best beer in the world. / V. Richard Haro/The Coloradoan

Linder, who came from Boulder, waited outside in the cold for six hours in hopes of securing a six-pack of the rare beer brewed by reclusive Trappist monks.

Unfortunately for Linder, there were only 36 six-packs available and he missed his golden ticket in the scrum that occurred outside Wilbur's Total Beverage Wine & Spirits at about 6:45 a.m.

Necessary, who got the last pack available, gave one of his six bottles to Linder. The two hugged over the beer as Linder thanked him.

Clutching the bottle of rare beer, Linder said the gift was “unspeakable.”

A beer enthusiast, Linder said he plans to crack the bottle as a Christmas gift with his co-workers after his final shift at Frasca Food and Wine before the holidays.

Hundreds lined up early Friday in the bitter cold outside Wilbur's for the chance to get one of 36 six-packs that Wilbur’s sold for $85 each. The store sold out in a matter of minutes after opening at 9 a.m.

In need of funds for a renovation, the Abbey of Saint Sixtus of Westvleteren in Flanders, Belgium, released for the first time in the U.S. a limited amount of its Westvleteren 12 beer. Wilbur's was selected among a handful of liquor stores to offer the rare and lauded beer.

Beer fanatics started assembling outside Wilbur’s at about 3 a.m., despite signs posted that asked people to wait until 7 a.m.

The line remained orderly until about 6:45 a.m., when the crowd of roughly 150 rushed the door, said Mat Dinsmore, Wilbur’s managing partner. Security guards roped off the entrance leaving some, like 27-year-old Fort Collins resident Devin Remley, out in the cold.

“It was organized. People were taking names,” Remley said while sitting on the wrong side of the black rope. “Then it turned into a madhouse as people bum-rushed us.”

Jordan Augenstein, 32, of Fort Collins, showed up at 6:30 a.m. and secured a spot next to the door. When he arrived, Augenstein said there was no order and he ended up near the front of the line.

An Odell Brewing Co. employee and a self-proclaimed beer geek, Augenstien said he couldn’t pass on an opportunity to add such a rare beer to his cellar.

Dinsmore, who called Westvleteren 12 a blessing and a curse, said they did the best they could with the crowds that came out.

Once the doors finally opened, Elvira Hinojosa, 61, of Houston, was the first to get her hands on the beer. Hinojosa, who said she’s a Budweiser fan, was visiting her son in Windsor and decided to buy the beer as a birthday gift for her daughter.